Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 on sale for £60 at Computer eXchange in Rathbone Place, London. Photograph: Guardian Gamers willing to pay above the odds can get their hands on an early copy of this year's must-have game, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 – if they're willing to pay £60, rather than the £35 it costs online. The games were on sale at least 48 hours ahead of the official embargo, which lifts at midnight on Monday, at Computer eXchange in London's Rathbone Place. Shrinkwrapped copies of the games for both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 were available in the window at the comparatively high price. Video games stores are expected to open their doors just after midnight on Tuesday morning to satisfy gamers who will have been queuing outside for hours to buy their copies as Modern Warfare 3 officially goes on sale worldwide. But London gamers have been able to buy them from the Computer eXchange chain of stores. When The Guardian's journalist quizzed a shop assistant about the fact that the games were on sale ahead of the worldwide embargo – which publisher Activision has fought hard to maintain, forbidding publications and bloggers from posting reviews online ahead of the release – a shop assistant said that the game was "already on sale in Europe". This however is incorrect. The Guardian believes that Computer eXchange may have acquired advance copies from a European distributor. Computer eXchange declined to answer The Guardian's questions over the phone about where it had got the copies and why it was selling them ahead of the embargo. It requested that questions be sent by email – but had not responded by the time it was told this story would be published. The games industry loves to exercise fine control over when its products go on sale to generate the maximum impact at launch. But its plans are often thwarted. The logistics of getting millions of copies of a game to shops around Europe while ensuring that none go on sale prematurely are fearsome. So while the industry frowns on such practices, it is effectively powerless to plug every single potential leak. In the past, legitimate retail sources have started selling games early before pleading that they made a mistake – such as Argos, which got in trouble for selling 2007's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 before it was supposed to. Mail-order outlets often dispatch pre-ordered games when they receive them, often before the games are officially on sale, so they are often favoured by gamers seeking to get their latest fix before anyone else. C&VG reports that US retailer K-Mart broke ranks to sell copies of Modern Warfare 3 earlier than it should have. One way in which such practices are discouraged is for companies running online gaming services – especially Microsoft with Xbox Live – to collaborate with games developers and publishers and to ban those found playing games online before their official launch date. But distributor Activision said in a statement that "we don't plan to ban players with early legitimate copies of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3". With millions of copies of the game pre-ordered, the amount of units that have leaked onto sale early is comparatively insignificant. In practice, publishers turn a blind eye to the practice – as long as it concerns only legitimate, as opposed to pirated, copies of the game. And it could also have pointed out that we're in the middle of a credit crunch, so waiting for the official launch before buying a game can only save you money.
lol i know that label from anywhere its cex they like to overprice there stuff more than gamestation or game got to be desperate to pay that
Ikr LOL!....This is even more stupid.. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Xbox 360, 2011) READY TO SHIP OVERNIGHT | eBay
lol im picking it up tommorow like any sane person lol at ebay page I don't have the game anymore, I sold it locally but my account is messed up and Ebay will not let me end the auction early so I just upped the price so no one will bid. Have a good day .
If you really want CoD games early get a modded 360... its not like MW3 has been up for download for a week now. Blackops leaked 21 days early... need i say more?
6,000 copies were stolen already,people are crazy 6,000 copies of Modern Warfare 3 stolen in French heist - Report - DS News at GameSpot
I hate this game. It is rubbish. seriously, why does everyone go crazy over this game? It's rubbish LOL
I used to think the same, then i played MW2 and good hooked on the campaign, the older games in the series are not great though i admit. As for the multiplayer its fast action at 60fps, something few other games offer on the 360.
I am done with the Campaign, it is wonderful game and for me it was a lot better than Battlefield 3 in all ways, the textures, the story... etc.
Looks like mw3 hasn't been patched for modded lobbies,prestige hacks and everything including xp,you would think after all of these call of duty games they would fix it.These people are charging $100 to do it. edit: